New Features and Tools in the Integrated Email and Calendar Services
by Ammy Hill
IT Services continues to work on the new integrated email and calendar services powered by the Zimbra Collaboration Suite.
Highlighted Features
Early testing has begun and some of the new features promise big gains for the Stanford community.
Campus demos of the new system are scheduled in the late Spring and Summer Quarters. The project Web site has the current information about upcoming presentations.
Some features spring from the integration:
- Get Address Book access across email, calendar, and task functions.
- Accept a meeting invitation directly from your email.
- Type part of an email address or a name and it shows matches from your personal address book first and from the Stanford directory as well.
- Use one search to search across email, calendar, and contacts, or limit your searches to one at a time.
Other features in the new service's design include:
- A powerful Web experience that works equally well on various Windows, Macintosh, and Linux browsers and allows use of folders, filters, and keyboard navigation.
- Easy and powerful access and synchronization from various mobile devices.
- Task lists to track what you need to do.
- For calendars you have permission to view, calendar overlays on your calendar so that it's easy to find a mutually free time to meet.
- Published, public calendars can be overlaid as well to see how your calendar works with external events.
Upcoming Demos
Campus demos of the new system are scheduled in the late Spring and Summer Quarters. The project Web site has the current information about upcoming presentations.
How These New Services May Affect You
- Sundial (Oracle Calendar) Users: Your Sundial calendar will be replaced with a new calendar tool.
- Webmail Users: The current Stanford Webmail tool will be replaced with a new webmail tool.
- Email Application Users: If you choose, you can continue to use your current email application as you do today. However, if you want to take advantage of the integration these new services offer, you may have to switch to the Web interface or, if you are not already using one, a desktop application that takes advantage of the available integration (e.g., Microsoft Outlook, Apple OS X Mail).
